


Keeping the Moral High Ground

by way2manylegs



Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-04-08
Packaged: 2018-06-01 03:38:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6499312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/way2manylegs/pseuds/way2manylegs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Instead of becoming Spoiler, Steph joins the Gotham City Police Department and crosses paths with Batgirl. Again, and again, and again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keeping the Moral High Ground

**Author's Note:**

> Pre-New52 but otherwise not really set at any particular place in canon. Steph's around 21, Cass likewise.

Rain pounded on the top of the squad car, a nonstop heavy beat that drowned out the radio static. Stephanie sat ramrod straight like the better her posture was the less likely she'd be to fall asleep. In the driver's seat, Senior Officer Ramirez was half buried under his jacket, his closed eyes peeking out above the collar. He'd chewed her ass out for blinking too damn long, yet there he was. Snoring.

Loudly.

Stephanie thought about waking him, but before she could make that bad decision, the radio did it for her, switching from a soothing empty crackle to full on screaming: "ALL UNITS COME IN--"

Ramirez jerked awake with a snort, looking around wildly before his attention fixated on the radio.

"--PURSUIT OF WHITE VEHICLE--"

"Shit, shit, shit," Ramirez hit the gas and pulled onto the street before they even knew where the hell they were going.

"--4TH AND MAIN--"

"God damn sonuva--" He pulled a hard right and turned in the middle of the road, Stephanie grabbing the Oh Shit handle above her seat and holding on for dear life as she swore they went on two wheels.

"--BAT IS ON THE SCENE--"

"Looks like you're lucky, newbie," Ramirez said, "your first night out and you get to see the man himself."

In the chaos that was Ramirez's driving, they'd missed the full call. Killer Croc was involved; Stephanie figured that one out without any help. They pulled onto 4th in time to nearly get his by another squad car, one Killer Croc had thrown haphazardly. Hoping to hit Batman, probably, but thank God Ramirez was as tightly wound as he was, because he swerved just in time to save them a trip to the ER - or the morgue. Good reflexes, she figured, or else just an overexposure to Gotham criminals. Maybe she'd be as numb to all that batshit insanity by the time she was Senior Officer Brown, but in that moment, Ramirez's out of place zen kept her tethered and out of a full blown panic attack.

They left the car on the side of the road. There wasn't much of a pursuit happening. The white car in question was upside down and half inside Sunny's Laundromat, leaking fluid ominously. "Gun out, newbie," Ramirez said, voice level. "It won't save you from that," he nodded at Killer Croc, "but it'll give you something to hold onto."

Comforting.

She shadowed Ramirez past the white car, the smell of gas so strong she flinched and picked up speed. A number of officers were holding a barricade, white knuckled and shaking, while Batman and his apprentices? cult members? flitted around, lobbing bombs and knives and who knew what else, trying to slow Killer Croc down. Nothing was working. Killer Croc swiped out again, this time catching Batman in the gut and sending him crashing through a store window. His flunkies disappeared, vanished like shadows in moving light.

Ramirez cursed. "Get ready," he called out. Stephanie mimicked him, using her body weight to push against the back of the officer in front of her, holding the barricade, but her mind raced. A barricade? A goddamn barricade against Killer Croc. He'd chew through them like tissue paper and move on to the apartments a few blocks down. Three in the morning wasn't an easy time to evacuate anyone, and wasn't the whole force right there with her? She could heat Ramirez in her mind, a sarcastic echo, _sounds like a problem for day shift_.

Killer Croc roared. Everyone went tense. Stephanie swore she could feel his breath, the spit flying, like he was a foot in front of her rather than twenty. She was going to die. It was her first official night as Officer Brown and she was _going to die_.

Her mind blanked. One second she was beside Ramirez, pushing her weight into the barricade, the next she was hitting pavement. She tasted blood, felt an awful ringing in her ears. Alive, though, she was definitely alive.

Stephanie pushed herself up. Killer Croc had hit her section of the barricade hardest; four, no, five bodies were on the ground, motionless. Officers were fanned out around Killer Croc, firing round after round. Batman and his flunkies remained AWOL. She managed to get herself up in time to realize two things: first, Killer Croc was moving again, and second, Ramirez was one of those bodies on the ground in Killer Croc's direct path.

"God damn," Stephanie ground out. Her gun was nowhere in sight, but she still had to move, scrambling up and across the street. A curious numbness fell over her as she grabbed Ramirez and dragged him up, rolling him away. Adrenaline, maybe, or more frightening still a kind of acceptance. She couldn't make it through this one. Ramirez, if he was alive, would be okay, would remember her fondly as the newbie who was too dumb to play dead, but Killer Croc's teeth were inches from her face. She couldn't move a single inch.

And then Killer Croc was gone.

Stephanie turned her head at the sound of another roar as the Bats popped out of nowhere all at once. How many of them were there? Did people just sign up for that kind of thing? Could she have? _Hi, I'm Stephanie, and I'd like to join your legion of Bat People_. No, no, that sounded terrible.

Her vision went black, but she hadn't lost consciousness. Instead, someone had dropped down in front of her, and for a brief moment, Stephanie thought it was him. The Batman. But than hands on her shoulders were too small, and when her eyes properly focused, the body was definitely not a man's.

"Good job," Batgirl said, her voice quiet and strangely deep.

"I live to serve," Stephanie said before slumping forward and blacking out. God _damn_.


End file.
